VGS Latest News & Tips: 29 January 2016

January 2016 General Meeting

The VGS Hits a Milestone: For the first time in their 23 year history of The Villages Genealogical Society, attendance surpasses 400 members.

On Wednesday January 27, 2016, 411 members attended the general monthly meeting to hear guest speaker, Debra Fleming, discuss the new features of FamilySearch.org. Our previous record attendance was in January of 2015 when 395 attended that meeting.

Two Women Abandoned By Parents Reunited As Sisters 50 Years Later:
PalmBeachPost
"Liz Kellner and Tammy Makram didn’t know they had a sibling. Both women were abandoned by the same parents four years apart."
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Tracing American Deaths Abroad:
Ancestry
"Arthur Amson of St. Louis, Missouri was a student of philology at the University of Leipsic in Germany. He died there on July 7, 1875. While we commonly think about “traditional” death records, there is a special group of records created for Americans who died abroad."
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The Insider’s Take on the New Ancestry:
Ancestry Insider
"Several of you have asked what I thought about the “New Ancestry.” I promised I would talk about it after my holiday break. So, here it is. First, let me say that my opinions on the matter don’t count. Why? Because Ancestry provides me with a complimentary subscription and a complimentary copy of Family Tree Maker. I don’t have the same skin in the game as you. So take my comments with that in mind."
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Step-By-Step Guide to Scanning Your Family Photos:Crestleaf
"As you rummage through those huge stacks of family photo albums for the perfect photos to add to your family tree, it can be pretty overwhelming when deciding which ones to scan and share. But the good news is that there are simple, effective ways to scanning your entire printed photo collection if you decide to do so."
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Genealogists Share Heirlooms and Tell Stories from Their Family Tree:

FamilySearch

"All families have heirlooms they hold dear. We cherish these physical objects because they represent a link to our past, a way to understand more about the people responsible for us being here today. To explore the power of these objects, we asked family historians to share a favorite family heirloom."

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This Day In History: 29 January
1861: Kansas is admitted into the Union as the 34th state.
1926: Violette Neatley Anderson becomes the first African-American woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.
1929: The Seeing Eye, America’s first school for training dogs to guide the blind, founded in Nashville, Tennessee.
1737 Birthday: Thomas Paine, political essayist (The Rights of Man, The Age of Reason).

VGS Latest News & Tips: 27 Mar 2015

What's Going On with Heritage Quest:

Recently, HeritageQuest changed their internet appearance and with any change there are pro's and con's and likes and dislikes. The following two articles will give you a sense of what has and has not changed. Heritage Quest is a FREE online library asset that every genealogist should have in his or hers toolkit. You can access it from your home with your library card. Everyone in The Villages can obtain a Free Sumter County Library card. Visit our website for details.  

Librarians Express Concern Over HeritageQuest Changes...

Ancestry.com Did not Buy HeritageQuest...

Milford Times Obituary Request:

The Milford Times is the oldest newspaper still being published in Oakland County, Michigan. The Milford Public Library has issues of the newspaper available on microfilm going back to its first issue in 1871. It has always been published on a weekly basis. The Milford Times includes news from Milford, Michigan, and many of the surrounding communities, including Highland Township, Commerce Township, White Lake Township, Hartland, Hickory Ridge, Wixom, Clyde, Walled Lake, Novi, and New Hudson. The obituary Index is from 1929-1949. Look-ups is a free service provided by the Milford Public Library.
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Seeking Michigan:

Seeking Michigan recently made the following announcement. "Today is Seeking Michigan’s sixth birthday, and the Archives of Michigan is thrilled to announce that images of Michigan death certificates from 1921-1939 are now available for free here at Seeking Michigan. The index for records from 1940-1952 will be made available in the next few weeks, with additional certificate images to be released each year as privacy restrictions are lifted."
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Death Record Pitfalls:

Death records are one of the most commonly used sources for genealogists. They have been around, in one form or another, for centuries. But one must be careful to use them properly. There are some pitfalls in using them. Michael J. Leclerc writes about 5 common pitfalls to be aware of during your research.
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News:

The Citrus County Genealogical Society will meet April 14 at 10:00 a.m. at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 3474 W. Southern St., Lecanto. The speaker will be Bob Bryan from the Pinellas County Genealogical Society. He will talk about  “Genealogy Photos: Organizing, Managing and Enhancing” and will demonstrate how to organize your digital genealogy photos so they can be easily found and how to enhance their appearance. All this can be done using Picasa, the free program from Google. Guests are welcome to attend. For questions call Mary Ann Machonkin at 382-5515 or go to www.citrusgenealogy.com

Benefits of a Newspapers.com Subscription:

• Search and browse thousands of newspapers across the United States
• Access to over 92 million pages
• Millions of new pages added every month
• Easily view, print, save, clip, and share your findings
Offer ends March 31st, 2015

Take advantage of this offer here...

VGS Latest News & Tips: 26 Mar 2015

Darned Posthumous Marriage:

We depend upon records to reveal the "truth" about our pasts. Yet sometimes records have anomalies. Read about such a case from ancestry insider.
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Enhancements to FamilySearch’s Personal Trees:

Robert Kehrer, senior product manager for search, recently announced enhancements to FamilySearch Genealogies, its personal tree feature previous called Community Trees. FamilySearch Genealogies are searched or submitted from https://familysearch.org/family-trees. To reach that page, click on Search and then on Genealogies.
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UK Mapped Out by Genetic Ancestry:

Finest-scale DNA survey of any country reveals historical migrations.
Ewen Cllaway writes "Researchers have found genetic signatures among Britons that betray their historical roots in particular locales of the United Kingdom, leading to the finest-scale map of genetic variation yet created. The analysis — which shows a snapshot of clusters of genetic variation in the late 1800s, when people were less likely to migrate far from their region of birth — reflects historical waves of migration by different populations into the island."
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FDA permits marketing of first direct-to-consumer genetic carrier test for Bloom Syndrome:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today authorized for marketing 23andMe’s Bloom Syndrome carrier test, a direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic test to determine whether a healthy person has a variant in a gene that could lead to their offspring inheriting the serious disorder.
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